Am I eating too little?

cheesy_blasters

Hey! I've been reading so many posts about eating more or eating less and macro percentages and I'm so confused now.

I'm 5'4 and trying to lose about 60lbs. I'm trying to lose a pound a week. I haven't been active (regularly) in awhile (multiple jobs/school) so I'm easing into it, doing low impact stuff every day and gym a few times a week.

Right now my calories are set for 1460 (without exercise) and Carbs are 45% (164g) Protein is 25% (91g) Fat is 30% (49g). Generally I get between 200 and 450 calories burned by exercise a day (like I said, low impact). I feel like I eat a lot. Regular meal times for the most part, divided pretty evenly.

However today I had 487 calories left, yesterday I had 247 and it's always around 200-500 calories left. I get close to my goals on and off but usually am usually around 5-25g away from my main goals (protein/fat/carbs). I get most of my carbs from veggies or other non-grain sources, although I started having rice or a small potato to add a bit to my day. I have to be super careful about carbs though because if I eat too much I get incredibly tried. Like, nap for several hours after each carby meal. Super sensitive to it so I tend to avoid it. So far good results with the rice. I just feel full a lot of the times. I've been increasing portion size (went from 100g of tofu to 150g etc) adding snacks. Using hemp hearts, adding nice olive oils to dishes. Before the changes I was hitting about 1000 calories a day. I do eat junk food sometimes but not often (usually when I visit family) but even on those days, I didn't meet or exceed my macros (if I eat a fast food burger, I tend not to be hungry for the rest of the day).

I don't eat exclusively vegan but I am trying to transition to a vegan diet. I find eating that much vegan food really hard. My best days are days where I eat meat but I don't want to use that as a crutch. I'd like to learn how to do it veggie style.

I just started here almost two weeks so I haven't been weighting myself regularly (I'm more concerned with inches to be honest) but it seems like I haven't really made any progress. My measurements are the same, my scale is down less than a pound I'm more concerned that I'm not eating enough to get optimal results. I know some people say to over estimate your calories (I do measure or weight everything) so I was assuming that I was getting more calories than what was shown but who knows. I've read about the BMR and stuff but I feel like I don't really understand it so I have no idea if my settings are good.

I'm just so confused I was hoping someone might be able to help...I am just so overwhelmed right now.

Thanks!!

GrAlVt

Hard to say if you're eating enough without knowing what your current weight is. With the right info, you can use online calculators to see how much your BMR and TDEE are. Generally, you probably want to eat a little above BMR at least, and however little you need to meet your deficit. Eating below BMR will give you rapid loss initially but will throttle your metabolism before long. Try giving more info and/or plugging it into fat2fitradio's caculators.

On the carb-tiredness thing, are you sure it's carbs in general and not gluten? Not many people are gluten intolerant, but gluten sensitivity could be more common than previously thought. You might try making all of your carbs gluten free and seeing if that helps. If that cures your carb induced tiredness, you probably have some form of gluten sensitivity.

imthelobster

Go by weekly deficit, if you're too far under the MFP weekly deficit then you need to up what you're eating a bit. Day to day, sometimes I'm over by 100 or under by 100-200, but it evens out over the course of the week.

I second the suggestion to go to fat2fitradio.com and check out their calculators. BMR is the Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount that you burn when doing absolutely nothing.

Are you eating your exercise calories back?

cheesy_blasters

Oh sorry, I'm 190 now!

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check out that site.

I do have wheat and gluten sensitivities but I find that if I don't measure out my carbs I still get super tired. I've been having issues for a couple of years so it's taken a lot of experimenting. At one time I was eating completely wheat and gluten free but still really tired. I think I just have trouble digestive carbs so if I eat too many it requires a huge amount of energy. Small amounts spread out over the day don't seem to have the same effect.

Sometimes I manage to eat some of my exercise calories back but most of the time it's only partially. (maybe 1/3 to half the calories I burn).

delmc1

just by whats posted the 1 thing i would change is carb -protein -fat ratio .yours seems carb heavy .your body has the 60lb you want to lose as energy .even if you balance it out at 35%carb/protein 30% fat you might see a difference.and not feel to slugish.

Captain_Tightpants

1460 sounds about right and sensible.

If you come in a little under that occasionally (1200 or so) I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes a regular habit.

If you find yourself way under (say below 1000) then consider just having a couple of spoons of peanut butter to blast yourself back to target.

cheesy_blasters

just by whats posted the 1 thing i would change is carb -protein -fat ratio .yours seems carb heavy .your body has the 60lb you want to lose as energy .even if you balance it out at 35%carb/protein 30% fat you might see a difference.and not feel to slugish.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely try that.

mcarter99

1460 sounds about right and sensible.

If you come in a little under that occasionally (1200 or so) I wouldn't worry about it unless it becomes a regular habit.

If you find yourself way under (say below 1000) then consider just having a couple of spoons of peanut butter to blast yourself back to target.

I'd agree but I personally wouldn't resort to PB unless I was consistently well under my calorie goal. I think listening to your body is more important than meeting some computer-made calorie goal. And I think our bodies, possibly especially women, go through hungrier days/weeks and less hungry ones. If we ride it out and go with the flow, we might be happier and healthier, instead of feeling starved on the days our body wants 1800 and stuffed on days our bodies wants 1200. The net result of just eating what you feel like over the month (say in the 1200-1800 range) would be the same as forcing your daily total to be 1500 each day. Obviously only IF your high days actually are roughly the same in number and magnitude as your low days, but it doesn't have to be exact each day or even each week, either.

myfitnessnmhoy

If you're targeting to lose 1 pound a week, and you've got 60 to lose, it's perfectly OK to be under by up to 500 calories a day (which is an additional pound a week). Losing 2 pounds a week is easily within "safe" weight loss parameters for someone with 60 pounds to go.

It's actually possible that your exercise calories are being underestimated and you're actually eating closer to maintenance, especially if you're feeling fully satisfied and feel like you can't eat too much.

If you are frustrated by not being able to eat back the calories, I'd set your goal to 2 pounds a week and make sure you eat all of those calories and see how it goes from there.

Everything on the site is an estimate, so you have to go with those estimates and experiment. But at a guess based on your goals, I'd say you might be inadvertently eating at maintenance.

Also, as others have mentioned, make sure your proteins, carbs, and fats are at least in balance, if not a tad protein-heavy if possible.

myfitnessnmhoy

just by whats posted the 1 thing i would change is carb -protein -fat ratio .yours seems carb heavy .your body has the 60lb you want to lose as energy .even if you balance it out at 35%carb/protein 30% fat you might see a difference.and not feel to slugish.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely try that.

Note: I did this (because I was struggling with hunger issues) by simply eliminating some of the fruit from my diet and adding a half of a lean turkey wrap. I also replaced my bagel-and-cream-cheese breakfast with oatmeal and a fried egg. Less hunger, more energy, and faster weight loss was the almost immediate result. Your mileage may vary.